Railroad box cars have been in use for many years transporting a wide variety of cargo. Box cars are recognized as being primarily useful when the cargo can be loaded directly in the car from a siding adjacent its production without any prior shipping involving substantial labor in loading and unloading the goods, as from a truck. The same applies at the shipping destination.
In recent years it has been found increasingly efficient to ship cargo in large containers by sea, railroad and highway. Shipping in this manner avoids unpacking the cargo between the time the container is packed by the shipper and received by the customer thereby avoiding extra labor, avoiding breakage and theft in handling and reducing delivery time. These benefits are realized because the containers are sized and shaped to be carried by highway trucks and trailers, special railroad cars and container carrying ships.
One type of railroad car which is particularly suitable for carrying containers is referred to as a well car. Such a car has side and end walls and a partial or full floor thereby defining a well or recessed space into which one or more containers can be longitudinally positioned. The container sides are generally at least two to three times higher than the depth of the well space. Additionally, the containers can be double stacked when desired to increase the shipping load.
Well cars of the described type suitable for carrying containers, and also highway trailers, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,091,742; 4,400,121; and 4,456,413.
The early well cars had forty feet long wells which were to be filled with one forty, or two twenty, feet long containers. When necessary or desirable the containers were stacked by placing an upper container on top of a lower container in the well.
More recently the length of some containers has increased first to forty-five, and then to forty-eight, feet. Thus, the length of the well has had to be increased to receive the longer containers.
To equally distribute the load in a well car it is necessary to center the containers, regardless of their length, in the well. When a forty foot container is centered in a forty-eight feet well there is a four feet gap at each end between the container and the well end. Similarly, when a forty feet long container is centered in a forty-five feet well the gap is two and one-half feet at each end. Gaps of such distances present a problem in that the laborer must be able to reach the ends of the containers when they are stacked so as to secure the upper container to the lower container. The gaps are too great for most laborers to reach the container ends from the car ends and for those laborers who can reach the containers by extending their reach a potentially unsafe stance is developed which could lead to an accident. There exists, accordingly, a need for an improved well car having means which permits a laborer to readily and safely reach the ends of stacked containers of different lengths in a well car.